Year
1987
Abstract
The IAEA sponsors international symposia at four year intervals to review the latest developments in safeguards technology. The sixth symposium in this series was held in Vienna in November, 1986. As is normal at professional meetings, the topics discussed in the corridors are significant in the sense that they, along with the technical presentations, identify areas of greatest current interest and concern. During this Symposium, papers on safeguards for reprocessing occupied about one-fifth of the technical programme; the subject appeared to be of considerable corridor interest as well. Also to be noted was the emphasis on recent experience with NDA equipment. Although receiving less emphasis as judged by the numbers of papers, the continued importance to effective safeguards of DA techniques, containment and surveillance, statistics, and data processing, was also evident. This overview paper discusses these topics and draws comparisons with past symposia. It also describes the international atmosphere, and summarizes important trends which the authors believe can be perceived in safeguards R & D efforts.